In a statement, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said Duterte is being called “duti” (poison) by the Maranaos and Iranon for having proclaimed martial law against them and having brought death and destruction during the siege of Marawi City.

He finds it useless to negotiate peace with the NDFP because that would be running counter to his scheme of fascist dictatorship and using the CPP and NPA as scapegoats for a nationwide martial law proclamation. He has not followed the requirement in JASIG to give to the NDFP a written notice of termination 30 days in advance obviously to show contempt for the NDFP and the entire revolutionary movement as well as the peace process and the agreements that it has produced.

I think that he finds it useful to terminate the peace negotiations with the NDFP, slander the CPP and NPA as terrorist, keep in reserve the explicit proclamation of nationwide martial law, escalate Oplan Kapayapaan and Oplan Tokhang and utilize Oplan Pacific-Eagle-Philippines as his means of intimidation and mass murder to ensure the railroading, ratification and enforcement of his pseudo-federal constitution for the sham legitimation of his fascist dictatorship.

It is wrong for Duterte to say sweepingly that they are all communists or they are mere facade of communists. They act legally and pursue an anti-imperialist and democratic line. And they constitute themselves as a broad united front of forces for national sovereignty and democracy against puppetry, tyranny and corruption. They include people from various walks of life and represent different schools or currents of thought and belief.

It is not true that Duterte enjoys high trust rating and popularity despite the notoriety it has gained in the Philippines and abroad for the mass murder of drug suspects, the killing of peasants and the indigenous people, the destruction of Marawi, the abuses of martial law and the scheme of fascist dictatorship through Con-Ass and ChaCha. The commercial survey firms, like Pulse Asia and SWS, are not asking the correct questions and are not using the correct methods in their small sampling of public opinion.

Sison said: “Duterte´s pretense to change the unitary form of government to that of a federation is akin to Marcos’ pretense to shift to the parliamentary form of government. As in the case of Marcos, the real objective of Duterte is to concentrate powers in his hands as fascist dictator”.

Jose Ma. Sison, in a statement issued early Wednesday, January 17, said President Rodrigo Duterte “is hellbent on imposing fascist dictatorship on the Filipino people and is flagrantly using basically the same strategy and tactics of mass murder, intimidation, corruption and charter change as the late fascist dictator (Ferdinand) Marcos used.”

'Duterte is hellbent on imposing fascist dictatorship...and is flagrantly using basically the same strategy and tactics of mass murder, intimidation, corruption and charter change as the late fascist dictator Marcos used,' says Jose Maria Sison